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We live in a world where it is news when an athlete "likes" a tweet. Take me back to the 90s.

Do you even think out your posts before you hit submit reply

Btw here is his distribution by statcast. Called strike 3s: Clearly in zone: 22 Slightly outside but on edge: 47 Way outside the zone: 3 Yeah he does get screwed some but he also takes a lot of strikes and borderline pitches. Against those 3 way outside he shouldn't swing but certainly at the 22 inside and probably at a lot of the 47 on the edges. He just takes a huge amount of pitches on the edges in and out of the zone. He probably got screwed some on borderline pitches but even votto who has the best reputation in baseball got rung up 28 times on borderline pitches slightly outside. But we can do the comparison: Edge two strike pitches: Moncada -ball 67 -strike 47 41% called strike Votto -ball 57 -strike 28 33% You can see that moncada got screwed some but this is compared to the guy with the best reputation in baseball. Compared to votto that cost him 10 looking Ks which is a lot but compared to the average player it is probably more like 4-5 which is still significant but not as big. You can see he does get screwed some but it is not like he is rung up on pitches way outside a ton, it happened a handful of times but mostly he got rung up on strikes and close balls.

Do people really believe this?

I've given up the thought of a hitting coach makes a difference. Dusty Baker use to go through a lot of them. It's a swing for the fences mentality with younger players. There's no situational hitting. It's all about individual accomplishments. Bunting is not glamorous but some made a career out of it.

This thread = Epic Fail

Might he be a little irked at the team.

And this is also why Kopech was brought up, despite his injury. He had to build up his innings. Honestly, I think the Sox got played a bit on the service time game. You win some, you lose some. Kopech probably knew that something was wrong weeks ago, and tried to pitch through it until he was called up. The guy had nothing to lose and everything to gain by doing that. He won on this one. The only way Kopech wasn't going to get called up in September was if he continued to get bombed and walk the world. That didn't happen, so his gamble paid off. Kopech would have been an idiot to say anything about his elbow until he got called up or he couldn't pitch and his velo was way down.

In the wake of the Kopech injury, as the season has turned more and more meaningless, I've been thinking a lot about Moncada and Anderson's numbers and whether they are "good" or not. What's strange about this is that 20 years ago, I would have thought for two young players 18ish homers and 40+ xbh, as fairly good, batting average aside. Add in Moncada's walk rate and Anderson's stolen bases, and some of their respective defensive plays and upside, and I think years ago many would have thought "these players are just fine, they just need time" However, that's NOT what's going on. The board is at least somewhat divided on whether both are going to be as good as they can be to significantly contribute to this team. Then I thought about Joe Crede. Joe Crede was one of the most frustrating players to root for from 2003-2004. After his rookie season of 2002 (he had a handful of PAs in 2000-2001), he had a very difficult time keeping his batting average, on base percentage, and OPS high enough to be acceptable for the next two seasons. He also had a difficult time keeping his WAR up, even with his defensive prowess. In his first 279 MLB PAs, he did very well - an over .800 OPS, great defense, tons of promise, WAR of 0.8 (with only 40% of a season). However, over the next 1123 MLB PAs, from 2003-2004, he did NOT do as well: a .251/.304/.424/.728, with a combined WAR of 3.2, averaging 1.6 per season. It obviously wasn't horrible or anything, but it wasn't something that I think White Sox fans felt they could necessarily live with as a long term option. My recollection was that fans were pretty unsure about him, in general. His two saving graces were his ability to hit homers and his defense. In 2003-2004 Joe Crede was 25 and 26 years old, and at the end of that time he had 1402 MLB PAs to his credit. As of the end of 2004, his stats were: .256/.304/.434/.738 career. Not bad, but just a seemingly just little above replacement. His career WAR was roughly 3.8 at this point. HOWEVER.... The next three complete seasons (and the injury shortened 2007) that Crede played were his best, and indubitably he was utterly essential to our championship run. I don't think anyone would argue that if we didn't have Joe Crede we would have won the 2005 championship. His combined 2005-2008 stats were: .258/.308/.453/.761 and his WAR over that span was 7.6 - twice the value of the previous four years over about the same number of PAs. All of this is to say that Moncada's WAR is currently 2.4 for his career at just 23 with about 800 PAs, and Anderson's is 4.5 at 25 through a little over 1400 PAs (ironically exactly the point Crede broke out himself) I think because Moncada was acquired in the Sale trade and we all expect instant gratification for players there is very little patience for MLB development. However, I think Crede (even as a lower rated prospect initially) is a great example of a player who gave us well over 1000 PAs at the MLB level before he was able to truly break out. Thoughts?

No one gets all strike 3's called correctly, so the hypothetical slash line is a fallacy. It's also common for umps to miss strike 3's that should have been called. I bet if you run the numbers, Moncada would be near the top as well for strikeout looking on pitches in the zone. He just doesn't swing on 2 strikes, and it's been said many time already that he needs to learn to protect on 2 strikes and should not leave anything close to the zone to the umpires discretion. Just like the NBA, umpires in MLB will give benefit of the doubt to stars like Harper, Trout, or Votto, Moncada isn't there yet. He needs to learn to be a smarter hitter.

I literally made the same post 9 posts before yours only without the links to the heat maps.Basically he has no hit tool and can't hit anything but mistakes and swings and misses a ton. There is just too much evidence that Yoan has a real lot of hitting areas to work on and he may not ever be a good hitter just a mistake hitter guy. If we are going to keep him and maximize his talent he needs a private hitting guru. I don't know who, but a small investment in a private tutor with a good rep isnt the worst thing you can do to maximize your investment.

It is not good but it probably also means that he takes a lot of borderline pitches and even strikes with two strikes. He is generally a rather passive hitter at 60% zone swing although he also does have a very good eye (23% Chase rate). Thus he probably got a reputation of being willing to take called strikes leading to close calls against him. I would prefer robot umps too but so far it is not coming and umps don't appreciate players taking 2 strike pitches half an inch outside. You don't need to chase but general understanding is that with two strikes you don't let the umpire decide on pitches that are 1-2 inches outside the zone. Imo moncada should be more aggressive within the zone. He should keep his Chase rate down but 60% zone swing is too low (league average is high 60s). For example votto is also very patient but he has a z swing rate of 68%, this means more hittable pitches going through. But moncada also needs to increase his real strike zone he can handle. If you look at his heatmap you see he basically only hits down the pipe well https://www.fangraphs.com/zonegrid.aspx?playerid=17232&position=2B&ss=&se=&hand=&count=&pitch=&season=&data=&blur=&grid=&view=&type=5 Having one hole is ok, but if you can just hit down the pipe that works in the minors but not in the majors. His swing rates reflect that, he basically only swings a lot down the pipe and takes more than half of the strikes at all 4 edges. This is a good adjustment to make if you can't hit those pitches but as soon pitchers recognize that and locate there it becomes a losing strategy. Moncada needs to hit pitches that are not down the pipe better, at least on two of the 4 eďges. I know you shouldn't make that comparison but here is trouts map. Trout also has a hole (up) but he covers all of the lower edge (actually beyond the zone), inside (except up and in which nobody covers well) and like most the outer half. https://www.fangraphs.com/zonegrid.aspx?playerid=10155&position=OF&ss=&se=&hand=&count=&pitch=&season=&data=&blur=&grid=&view=&type=5 Such a pattern is much harder to pitch to than moncada who can be attacked down, up or in. At this point moncada is basically a patient mistake crusher which has some value but limits his hit tool especially against good pitchers.

If you have read any of the articles by a ex minor leaguer on another site(not trying to create controversy), the reimbursement for the average minor leaguer is poor. Guys going to the AFL may only get a $20 meal allotment. There is a cultural adjustment for players coming from latin america to the states etc. Could someone with the ability to reach Getz or someone in the appropriate area ask a question/series of questions? Why do we not provide meals for the minors before games/ after games/ or both? The non bonus baby minor leaguer makes less than minimum wage. Even guys like Moncada freaked out when discovering twinkies and Eloy was in to a fast food chain. Others, we heard about pizza. Why not be the class of the minors and feed your players a nutritious meal, either in a post game spread or in boxes if hoping on the bus? Can you not supply supplements/vitamins if requested? It would not be that costly and you could tailor it to the players needs. Granted it is a static facility, but Alabama's football team eats like kings, steak, lobster etc but also with nutritionalists fitting diets to the individuals needs. Why isn't this done in the minors? I understand that most players won't make it but when you stand in front of Congress (which may be coming) to explain the sub minimum wage conditions, wouldn't this be if nothing else a good excuse? If the White Sox were to do this ( I realize Jerry doesn't rattle the status quo) it could set us up as a premier organization where everyone in the minors would like to be. It could help on signing draft picks as well as the minor free agent who ocasionally pan out. It seems ridiculous to pay 50-60 million on a player and let them eat garbage/fast food. Entrain them with good habits and hopefully you don't have out of shape major leaguers either. I would love to see articles in the future addressing just how we take care of our players. Sorry for the length.

Makes this even worse..

Rondon needs to get the starting opportunity at 3B next year over Yolmer. Yolmer can be the supersub, his most suitable role...and Leury for OF/defense/PR, if you duct tape him up and he can still stand.

I may be misunderstanding the stat, but I don't believe they were all with a 3-2 count. Just 2 strikes. So turning them into walks may not be correct.

If you don't think that the Sox are losing on purpose, then what's your explanation for why the team is so lifeless now when just not too long ago, it was firing on al cylinders?

Ok so he's K'd looking 72 times total and of that 72 , 50 were out of the zone. Now I've seen data in tweets that might say something like that pitch is called a ball 30% of the time. I think any ball that's called a strike over 50% of the time we should consider it a strike while balls called a strike under 50% of the time should be classified as a ball to get a better feel of how accurate this is. One thing we know for sure from those stats is his K's swinging are very high and that means his hit tool or eyesight or something else is wrong that prevents him from making more contact. His main problem is lack of contact with the ball . He needs to put way more balls into play however he achieves it, shorten his swing , bunt more , choke up , a different stance ,a leg kick. make him hit rocks with a broomstick, I don't care . Find something that helps him make more contact when he does swing. If you look at his hot zones it seems the only place where he gets hits is on pitches right down the middle. Good luck being a good player living off that. You have to be able to hit more than just the mistakes.

I subtracted 49 Ks (and 49 ABs, accordingly) and added 49 BBs.

I disagree that this is "the umps taking the bat out of his hands" or the stated point that this is something that will turn around on its own. The reason Moncada looks this bad in this number is that pitchers know THIS is an easy way to attack Moncada. They know he's patient enough that if they throw good pitches early in the count, he may not attack them unless they make a mistake. If the pitcher gets ahead in the count, they also know that Moncada will not defend himself if the pitch is close, he will continue looking for a pitch he can drive. Moncada will not foul pitches off with 2 strikes to stay ahead if the pitch is close but unhittable, he will take that pitch. Other players will fight those pitches off or put them in play, Moncada won't. So, if a pitcher gets ahead of Moncada, what do they do? They throw the ball just out of the strike zone a couple times and since Moncada won't defend himself, it's up to the quality of framing and how well the umpire sees it whether or not he strikes out. If they've got an 0-2 or 1-2 count, they can do that a few times and see if Moncada grabs some bench without him ever threatening to do damage. If we replayed this season a hundred times, Moncada would still lead the league in this category. It's not because he's getting bad luck from the umps or that the umps just don't respect him (I guess it's possible there's a little bit of it in there it can't be ruled out completely), this is all about Moncada's approach. This is a major vulnerability for him. Unless there are robot umps adopted, any time he gets behind in the count, he's vulnerable to striking out looking because he won't defend on close pitches. You get ahead of him, you have a catcher that frames the ball acceptably, and you throw a pitch that is close, he'll grab some bench. Until Moncada's approach when behind in the count improves, he will lead the league in this every year.

Have to disagree. The strike zone should be the strike zone regardless of count. That is a shame. 50 times the umps have taken the bat out of his hands with bad calls. And that is just for strike 3. That is almost 10% of his ABs. Completely ridiculous.

Do these stats go the other way too where it shows how many times ball 4 should have been strike 3? Or any ball called that should’ve been strike 3?

Literally just correcting this would change his slashline to .247/.387/.431 with a 18.7% BB rate and a 25.0% K rate. In case anyone was wondering how badly the umps have screwed Moncada over this season, there's your answer.

Did he really? I said the exact same thing to a guy at work, and added for pitchers I would wait for 500 IP. I feel like a GOD DAMN GENIUS.

Obviously they have a GM that thought he could pitch or he would not have been added to the ML roster. The manager played Engel in CF last night because when he went to make out the lineup, Trout or Betts were not on his roster.

It seems like yesterday that people were pissed about Gomez still being in AAA.